The ADATA XPG Levante 360 AIO Cooler Review: Stuck in the Middle

Conclusion

ADATA has been taking huge diversification steps in recent years. Some of them appear very well calculated, while a few may be overestimating the product's market potential. From our point of view, the XPG Levante series, which is the first and only AIO cooler series that the company currently offers, is running the risk of ending up the latter.

The XPG Levante 360 bases its effectiveness and competitiveness on the proven reliability and dependability of Asetek's cooling platform. It is factual that these designs have been proven time and time again to be extremely reliable and good all-around performers. And the XPG Levante 360 is no exception to that rule, as it is an immaculately made product, free of imperfections. ADATA’s engineers apparently chose, and rightfully so, not to meddle with a proven design. As a result, the only major difference between the XPG Levante 360 and Asetek’s reference design is the advanced Vento Pro fans.

But because the market already has plenty of Asetek-derived AIO coolers, ADATA still needed to do something to set the cooler apart in the eyes of consumers. And since the Vento Pro fans are the only major performance differentiator between this AIO cooler and countless Asetek clones, ADATA's marketing department is relying on the fans to be that X factor – and arguably stumbling over themselves in the process.

Case in point: ADATA is using a rather poorly designed graph to promote the capabilities of the fans; one that is likely to do more harm than good for the company. The graph groups CFM and dB(A) – linear and logarithmic figures respectively – on the same axis in order to speciously suggest extraordinary airflow performance. The Vento Pro fans are by all means excellent fans, but contrary to ADATA's statistician-unapproved marketing, they're not that good.

Cooling performance aside, arguably the primary selling point of the XPG Levante 360 is its addressable RGB lighting. The company’s engineers did a great job there as well, as the visual effect of the RGBW LEDs on the fan’s blades and rims is outstanding. While the lighting of the company’s logo on the main block itself is not as impressive, it is good as well. If your motherboard does not support addressable RGB lighting, ADATA includes a basic controller that will get the job done, albeit it would force the user to open the case in order to change any settings.

Overall, the XPG Levante 360 is a well-made, large AIO cooler with addressable RGB lighting. It performs very well overall, with a good performance-to-noise ratio and a well-implemented lighting system. But, for better or worse, the same can be said about several other coolers on the market. The end result is that the XPG Levante isn't able to do enough to set itself apart from the competition – it's a commodity product in the truest sense: it's more than fit for purpose, but it's as unremarkable as a dozen other 360 RGB coolers also on the market.

As a result, we have no problem recommending the XPG Levante 360 – its performance and feature set make it a very good and reliable cooler – we just can't recommend it over the other coolers on the market. And as ADATA isn't looking to undercut the market here on pricing – selling the cooler at around $180 – the XPG Levante 360 cooler ultimately finds itself stuck in the middle of a market full of similarly excellent coolers.